


We Don't Hesitate to Sing Along

by BabylonsFall



Series: Prompts [3]
Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Case Fic, Gen, Kinda anyway, Magic, Team Bonding, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 01:55:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11957265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabylonsFall/pseuds/BabylonsFall
Summary: With Cassandra's new powers, she knows she needs to practice - to control them as much as grow into them. She turns to Ezekiel, which turns out, surprisingly, just fine.And then, of course, they set off a trap on a mission.





	We Don't Hesitate to Sing Along

**Author's Note:**

> I was given this prompt: _Since it's casekiel week, would it be alright if I asked for something where Ezekiel let's Cassandra use her telepathy on him?_ from [queerseth](https://queerseth.tumblr.com//)
> 
> This ended up on the gen-side of things again, but I think it can be read pre-relationship, or as friendship, however you want really!
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

One of the first things Cassandra did her best to learn, in the quiet after Apep and Eve and Flynn and the _mess_ of the last few weeks, months (let’s be honest, the last three years, but that was more a… roller coaster, than a whole mess, and _that_ was a thing in and of itself and not the point here), was how to filter. The step after that was keeping her thoughts to herself.

...The latter was easier than the former, oddly enough. Once she was able to separate the fire-bright equations from the sounds at the edges, from the memory recalls brought on by scraps of thought that didn’t originate with her, but still sent her vision swimming and her senses clamoring for attention, it was surprisingly easy to follow the lines of her own thoughts through their familiar tangles, through sharp bursts of citrus, chimes and color, and stop them from reaching out to other tangles unintentionally.

She didn’t know if she could hold back easily because in the crush leading up to Apep, she hadn’t had to think too hard about pushing into other people’s minds for quick, fly-by reasons - it had just come naturally. And now that she had the chance to actually stop, to breathe, to consider what she was doing, her mind already had a path to travel and she just had to set up walls here and there.

...And that metaphor maybe didn’t work as well as she thought, but it was the only one she had right now, so it’d have to do.

After all of _that_ then, came the need to practice.

Which presented even more of a problem.

She wasn’t naive about the implications of her new abilities - she had amazing potential to help and learn and explore here, yes, but, as with most magic, she’d learned, she also had awesome potential to hurt with this. Which drove home the need to practice even more. And yet, highlighted why asking anyone for help was… a bit of a problem.

She didn’t want to practice with someone unawares - that time in the hospital had been harmless, she knew, but she didn’t want to get into a habit of it - but her team was also still a little… fragile, after the events of late.

(Always had been, really, but she wasn’t touching their collective issues with a ten-foot pole, thank you very much.)

She supposed she could ask Jenkins - the most magically inclined and knowledgeable of all of them. She knew he’d humor her, help where he could. But she also knew how intensely private he was - and until she was sure she wouldn’t pull some unbidden thought out of him against his will, she didn’t feel comfortable approaching him about it.

Same with Eve.

Same with Flynn.

Jacob was right out the window.

And then, there was Ezekiel. He hadn’t said a word about the passcode trick she’d pulled in the train. She didn’t even know if he actively remembered that that had been her helping out at the moment, or if, in the rush and scuffle of trying to find Eve, it had kind of gone by the wayside.

He was as private as the rest of them of course - probably more so since details on his past had to be dragged out of him (or dropped in the quiet between cases when he thought no one was paying attention to his ramblings, but she couldn’t ever bring those up, because if she did, he’d probably stop)

But… if he did remember. If he hadn’t freaked out over it….

Well. Couldn’t hurt to ask, right?

* * *

Asking was a lot simpler than she thought it’d be.

“You want to practice what?”

“You remember the train? When I… pushed? the passcode at you?” her hands were fluttering, she knew they were - a nervous habit that had only gotten worse now that there was more to touch, more to see. Ezekiel blinked at her - which, fair. She’d kind of ambushed him in the Annex’s kitchen, where he’d been in the process of heating up some leftover… something. The smell wasn’t familiar anyway.

Then, he shrugged.

“Sure.” And that was that.

* * *

That was not that.

Or. It kind of was?

Cassandra got to practice. Just not in the way she thought she would.

Reading Ezekiel, when he wasn’t focused on her was… interesting. What she’d learned to filter into little more than radio static was about as clear as listening through a tin can on a string from him. When he _was_ focused on her, all of that fidgety energy devoted to their time to practice, she could parse his thoughts as easy as anything - though she purposely reined herself in, keeping to surface impressions - vague outlines of thought that colored beautifully along new recalls and connections - like they’d agreed.

And _that_ talk had been fun. But, completely necessary she knew. Ezekiel trusted her - she never dwelled too long on that, but when she did, she always ended up with a slightly goofy smile - but she still felt… squirmy, about reading too far into someone’s mind until she had a finer control on keeping herself back. Establish a baseline, reach out from there, was the plan.

* * *

Plans. Plans were useless. You’d think they’d know that by now - she couldn’t name a case that had gone exactly to plan since they’d started honestly.

But, as she sat up, coughing up dust and rubbing at her sore back with a groan, she gave a fond thought to their plan anyway - get in, get out, don’t upset any incredibly delicate ancient traps on the way. Easy. Simple.

Now, she was on one side of a stone slab, Jacob and Ezekiel on the other. Dust was still settling around her from where it had slammed down with enough force to cause a weaker wall of the cave beside them to collapse along with it.

She had light at least, from the sunlight filtering in in long, golden slats from the entrance behind her. The boys though…

“Ezekiel? Jacob?” She reached out, only just, getting static and that weird tin-can chime back. Well, both were alive at least. It took a long couple of moments to get a response though, each passing second amping up her anxiety and sending sparks over her nerves.

“...-assie? You okay?”

“Fine! I’m fine! What about you guys?”

“We’re good - is it broken? No? You’re sure? ...Yeah, we’re fine.” was Jacob’s muffled reply She snorted. Comforting.

“Do you see a way out?” Do you see anything at all would probably be a better question. The only light on their way in had been that behind them, and the torch they’d found because ancient caves apparently just had torches laying around and she’d learned not to question it.

“...Well, there _used_ to be a way out.” There was Ezekiel. Without the faint static like that which assured her Jacob was awake and moving, hearing Ezekiel’s voice let her relax at the confirmation that he was actually okay. “Looks like it went down with the door - all that’s left is rubble.”

“-ait, Jones- ...oor?” She couldn’t make out most of that, Jacob apparently either having lowered his voice or turned away from the door.

“...Okay. Puzzles. There’s always puzzles. Why’re there always puzzles?” despite the situation, Cassandra had to giggle at that. Torches, traps, puzzles. They were surprisingly standard - to a ridiculous degree, honestly.

“We can take it up with Flynn later - help me figure this out.” she sighed. The boys had the hang of things then, so she dropped down on a nearby rock to wait.

“What’ve we got cowboy?” Well, at least they were close enough to the door that she could hear them pretty clearly.

“...Akkadian. Early second millennium maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“It’s not like… it’s not like it’s sentences. It’s numbers. Those take a hell of a lot longer to change, alright?” Cassandra paused, perking up.

“Numbers? Is it a problem or a list, or what?” she called out.

“I mean, it looks like a probl- Jones, what the hell, watch the elbows!”

“You’re fine. Cassie, you wanna take a look?” She blinked.

“...You sure?” Sure, they’d been practicing. But, surface thoughts, if that, at best. Rarely fully formed words or memories - and those she backed away from as quick as possible. But Ezekiel sounded nothing but relaxed, confident. Trusting.

“If it gets us out of her faster, sure.” And she could almost imagine Jacob’s ‘what the hell’ look, though, surprisingly, he was staying quiet.

Okay.

Okay. She could do this. This was completely harmless.

She reached out, and, with Ezekiel focusing on her in return, finding his stream of thought was easy. Parsing the actual thoughts was harder of course - this intentional reading was new, and there was a _lot_ going on in anyone’s mind at any one point, on top of what was already going on in her own.

But, she got a pretty good idea about what he was seeing, even if she couldn’t actually _see_ it - it was a weird feeling that she would have to analyze later because _wow_ that was weird, seeing something without seeing it, made up solely of someone else’s impressions and scattered thoughts and oh, she was getting slightly dizzy so away from that for now.

Separate bricks, to the ceiling, varying characters on each. While neither she nor Ezekiel could make heads or tails of the actual signs, there was a pattern there, stones raised in irregular intervals, recessed in a completely different-

“Jacob - Akkadian numeral system, it’s not decimal, it’s-”

“Sexigesimal.”

And there it was, the pattern clicking into place, bright and tart. She grinned and pushed the code to Ezekiel before withdrawing completely.

The double vision was new.

Shaking her head only made her dizzy again, but the double vision did fade away a bit after a moment, just in time for her to hear the scrape of stone being shifted. There was a muffled curse before the next couple of stones scraped, but soon enough, there was a loud, hollow clang from somewhere below and the door started to rise.

Ezekiel and Jacob scrambled through as soon as it was high enough for them to do so - already well versed in the very real possibility of busted doors and Indiana Jones-style door-sliding.

Safe on the other side, they blinked at her in the sudden bright light, then grinned. She snorted. They looked even more a mess than she knew she did, streaked in dust and grime, a couple tears in their clothes here and there.

But whole, at least. No bleeding. No one passed out.

No artifact either, but that door looked pretty solid from where it had creaked closed again. They had time to go back to the Library, regroup, figure out another way to get at it.

So, not a complete success, but not an actual disaster either.

Cassandra was going to call that a win. She grinned and offered her hands, helping the boys haul themselves up.

“Come on. I’m not the only one that needs a shower.” She shooed them ahead to go find a suitable place to get a Back Door to them - but wasn’t too surprised when Ezekiel dropped back to let Jacob lead, falling into step beside her once they resurfaced.

“So. That went well. Knew it would, of course.” Cassandra snorted out a laugh - and yet, even if she didn’t want to acknowledge it, the words did quiet the squirmy feeling in her stomach before it could get settled in, now that the excitement was over.

It had gone well. Neither of them were worse for wear, Ezekiel hadn’t hesitated to offer, Cassandra hadn’t intruded farther than necessary, hadn’t lost control.

She didn’t say anything for a moment, looping her arm through his as they trailed after Jacob.

Ezekiel didn’t break stride at the near-whispered “Thank you,” that she gave after a couple minutes. But he did smile wider and roll a shoulder.

“...How long until Stone gives in and asks what just happened?” He mock-whispered, and she knew they were good.

As if waiting to hear his name, Jacob whirled on them, one hand coming up to point accusingly - somehow, still walking backwards without tripping. He opened his mouth as if to start on one of his rants, then paused, glancing between them. Whatever he saw - and Cassandra had no idea _what_ that was, by the way - seemed to settle him though, and he just shrugged and turned back around.

“Magic? It’s magic isn’t it.” He shook his head with a grumble, though Cassandra heard the deliberate nonchalance he tried to put into his tone and she had to bite back a smile, “Whatever it is, you two seem to have a handle on it.”

And that was that.

(That was _never_ that, but for now, it’d do.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Hopefully it wasn't too odd?
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated! Come say hi on [tumblr](https://distinctivelibrarians.tumblr.com)!
> 
> (title is from Autobahn by Anberlin)


End file.
